you better turn the light on (keeping the dark at bay)
by Cordelia Rose
Summary: Theo used to be the monster under the bed, the one that everyone was afraid of, before…but this was after now. He isn't the big bad wolf now. He is the kid who's scared that the darkness would swallow him up, or that his sister would come crawling out of it and wrench out his – her – heart again. "Dude," Liam says, in a soft tone, "have you not figured it out?"


_Originally published at AO3 on 03/01/2018_

My first foray into Thiam!

It's a ship that I'm very heavily invested in and I would love to write more in the future  
this is something that I wrote in like,,,, 2 hours at 3am? That's my excuse for it being shitty lmao  
I have a load of personal headcanons about theo & thiam which this doesn't really touch on but if you guys like? hopefully? I will write some more  
i wanted to put a bit of a twist on the typical 'liam finds theo in his truck and takes him home' fic i've read - not that those fics arent fantastic, but i just wanted to do it a little differently!  
ALSO - title is taken from Wolves by Grace Davies - amazing song, amazing artist, check it out!

* * *

Theo both likes and dislikes the woods.

He prefers it over anywhere else he has ever parked his truck for the night, because none of Beacon County's finest officers come out this far and therefore he could get a good night's sleep; and also because the lack of streetlights meant that the darkness was much greater, more enveloping.

That was also why Theo hates it.

He used to be the monster under the bed, the one that everyone was afraid of, before…but this was after now. He isn't the big bad wolf now. He is the kid who's scared that the darkness would swallow him up, or that his sister would come crawling out of it and wrench out his – her – heart again.

He doesn't want to burn out his truck's battery, or use up any fuel that he can't actually afford in the first place, so he doesn't reach up and turn on the lights. Instead, he lays on the backseat, uncomfortably cramped, blanket not much protection against the raging cold that has seeped into his bones, in the stagnant gloom.

Until he hears his name being called by a vaguely familiar voice, and he sits up with a jolt.

"Mrs Geyer?" He flings the door open and jumps out, kicking the blanket off and letting it fall into the footwell. "What are you doing here?"

Liam's mom, wearing a smart yet sensible coat and a pair of work trousers, steps carefully over a slightly muddy patch of ground to be closer to him, heels digging into the marshy undergrowth. "Returning this," she says casually, holding up his phone. "Liam borrowed one of your jackets this evening, he found your phone in the pocket a few hours ago." She holds the phone out and Theo takes it, feeling rather bemused by the entire situation. Is Mrs Geyer physic? How did she know where he is?

"Thank you for dropping Liam home after school, by the way," she continues. "He appreciates it, even if he doesn't necessarily act like it." Theo has a brief flashback to slammed car doors and snarled goodbyes, and smiles faintly. "Anyway, when he realised he had your phone but not your address, I rang my husband to ask if he could find it on your medical records at the hospital." He must look taken aback, because she adds, "Sorry, I know that's slightly invasive, but nobody knew where we could find you, and Liam seemed quite desperate that you should have it back."

Makes sense. Liam had gotten into the habit recently of texting Theo whenever he needed something (those somethings ranging from a lift from school, to help taking down a group of heavily armed hunters). "Yeah, I should – I should probably update that," he manages finally, shoving his phone into his pocket for something to do with his hands.

"The house you had as your address was sold nearly six months ago," Mrs Geyer says softly. "Your parents moved away?"

"Yeah," Theo chokes, wishing he could tell her the truth. Mrs Geyer, on the few occasions he's seen her, has always treated him like her own son. Then again, if he told her the truth about why he didn't have a home…she wouldn't want anything to do with him after that. "They, uh, left without me." Which isn't technically a lie, he reasons to himself, and then wonders when lying began to feel like the wrong thing to do.

"You didn't go with them?"

When Theo finally looks up at her, he can see even in the darkness that her eyes are glistening with tears. "They didn't want me," he says, and gets through the entire sentence before a sob works its way out of his throat. Because while that might not be what happened this time around, it's what happened so many times before.

"Oh, Theo," Mrs Geyer breathes, and steps forward to envelop him in a warm hug. She smells like perfume and a fruity body wash and cinnamon and the woods she's been walking through, and so many scents should be overwhelming his nose but instead he just feels comforted. "Hush," she murmurs, which is when Theo realises he's started crying properly, and he takes a couple of minutes with his arms wrapped around her to collect himself before backing away.

"Um, thanks for bringing my phone," Theo mutters, wiping at his eyes with his sleeve. "I'll let you go back home now."

Mrs Geyer's eyes are still watering and she sniffs herself before replying. "Theo, you really think I came traipsing out into the woods at midnight just to return your phone? Come on," she indicates the truck, "the spare room's made up and ready." She walks past him to the passenger side door, taking his keys from the truck bed as she does, and climbs in.

Theo takes a minute to process what in the hell just happened, and hops in the seat, accepting the keys and starting the engine. "Are you sure, Mrs Geyer?" he asks, voice scarcely a whisper.

She turns to look at him with eyes bright and full of kindness. "Of course, Theo."

* * *

"I'm not a good person, I've done bad things," he warns on the drive home.

"People are never good and bad. We're all a mix of the two." Mrs Geyer points out a road on the right and Theo turns onto it smoothly.

"What if you've done more bad than good? What if you're more bad than good?"

Mrs Geyer sighs heavily. "I don't know your story, Theo. But I think I know your heart."

"Not mine," Theo mutters, and pretends not to see her turn her head sharply towards him. "Where here?"

"Left, then keep going." She lets the subject drop.

* * *

Theo pulls into the driveway a few minutes later, when a thought occurs to him. "Wait, how did you know I'd be in the woods?"

Mrs Geyer smiles as she heads towards the front door. "Oh, I asked Liam where I might find you, and he called Mason, who put Corey on the phone, and Corey said you'd probably be in the woods."

"Corey?"

"He seemed quite certain about it too, bless him."

Theo frowns as he follows Mrs Geyer into the quiet house, and then remembers that Corey lives close to the preserve and can probably catch his scent whenever Theo parks his truck there. She kicks her shoes off and he copies her example, terrified of offending her or committing some kind of social faux pas. The entire house smells of Liam, his warm, enveloping scent that Theo wishes he could bottle and keep with him at all times.

"We'll get your stuff in from the truck tomorrow," Mrs Geyer whispers, shrugging her coat off. "And see what else you need. For now, you must be exhausted. I'll show you where your room is."

Theo trails up the stairs after her and tries to say thank you, but his exhaustion has finally caught up to him and he barely manages the words before he yawns. Mrs Geyer chuckles and pushes him towards the bed. He collapses on top of it, pushing the covers back half-heartedly and starts drifting off immediately at the sensation of an actual mattress.

* * *

He's not slept in a bed for so long now that he feels slightly disorientated when he wakes up, wondering where he is, before he remembers the events of the last night. He tugs his phone out of his pocket, noticing that at some point somebody pulled the duvet over him, and checks the time. 14:17. He's slept for just over twelve hours.

At first he thinks that's why he's woken up, because for once he actually feels refreshed and like he's had enough rest, but then he hears a shuffling outside the door and picks up Liam's scent and realises it's because the werewolf has been hovering outside for who knows how long and his heart stutters.

He debates between calling Liam in and staying silent to see how long he'll stay there, when Liam finally knocks timidly on the door, then opens it slowly without waiting for a response. "Theo?" he asks in a hushed tone, then the crease between his eyebrows disappears when he sees the chimera is awake. "Hey."

"Hey," Theo rasps, blinking the sleepiness from his eyes. "Uh…" He feels like he should say something about him being in Liam's spare room, but he can't think of any words in that moment.

Liam creeps the door open a little more and steps into the room, producing Theo's duffel bag. "I got this out of your truck," he explains. "You can use my bathroom. It's clean, I promise."

"You're not mad about me being here?" Theo blurts before he can stop himself. Sometimes he thinks that his brain and his tongue have been softened along with the rest of him during his time with Tara, because he doesn't have the total control over his entire body that he always used to have before.

A funny look crosses Liam's face, one that he can't quite decipher. "Dude," he says, in a soft tone, "have you not figured it out?" He shakes his head at Theo's baffled look. "We're friends. I thought you'd gotten that memo somewhere between you saving my ass a million times and me asking you to give me lifts to lacrosse practice every Saturday morning."

Theo lets a smile tug at his lips, happiness flooding through his chest. He ducks his head and murmurs, "Didn't know that meant friends," he admits, which is only half a lie. It was more that he hadn't wanted to let himself believe that it meant they were friends.

"You're a dumbass, sometimes, you know that?" and Theo looks up. This bantering back and forth, joking insults snapped at each other, he could do that. But then Liam ruins it – "But you're also a good person."

He swallows, and shifts his weight from one foot to the other, and knows that Liam can smell the new radiation of anxiety from him because the next second a hand closes around his wrist and the werewolf is saying earnestly, "Just because you're broken doesn't mean you can't ever be fixed, Theo."

He finds his voice. "There will always be cracks, though, after." After.

Liam's grip slides from his wrist to his hand, and squeezes hard. "Cracks don't mean ugly," he whispers, and then drops his hand and takes a step back, meeting his gaze. "On the inside or out."

The tension between them is palpable even to someone without supernatural senses. It's suffocating. Theo could diffuse it with a joke, but somewhere he knows that this is it. This is a tipping point. He says something sarcastic, or stupid, something that lets them turn this situation into another of their back-and-forth volley of snipes that they don't really mean, and whatever's happening now…it never happens again.

He swallows again, and then again, and closes his eyes for a few long moments. When he opens them again, Liam is still staring at him intently. "I don't know if I can put myself back together," he admits, and damn his voice for cracking on the last word, and damn his throat for closing up so suddenly and not letting him get anymore words out.

There's a hand on his shoulder, and then one on his cheek, and he leans into it, chasing the affection. "You don't have to," Liam says, and his voice breaks too. "Not by yourself. You have me."

Theo feels a tear fall, unbidden, and just as quickly feels Liam's thumb swipe over his cheek to wipe it away. "I have you," he repeats, and lets himself believe it, and then suddenly he feels something inside his chest come crashing down. "Liam," he starts, but the words catch in his throat when their eyes meet again. "Liam," he tries again, but shakes his head. There's a rush of euphoria climbing through his bones, surges of adrenaline pumping through his blood, and the way Liam is looking at him with those blue eyes is just exacerbating his speechlessness. He's been refusing to let himself feel for so long, especially when it comes to Liam, but now all of his emotions have gone into overdrive.

"I really hope you were going to say that you want to kiss me," Liam breathes, words shaking as they leave his mouth. He watches Theo's eyes widen, watches the pupils dilate, watches him swallow and then nod, because maybe Theo only let himself feel recently but the world be damned if Liam wasn't the first person that he thinks of when he wakes up, when he hears people talking about love, when he lets his mind drift before he goes to sleep. "Oh, thank God." He leans in and meets Theo's lips in a mix of crushing passion and numbingly gentle care.

When they break apart it could have been seconds or hours; for all that Theo cares, it could have been days. All that matters is Liam staring at him like he's the only one in the world. "I don't deserve this," Theo says, because he has to, he can't let Liam be ruined by someone like him. "I don't deserve you."

Liam lets out a huff of laughter, resting his forehead against Theo's. "The way you see yourself is not the way others see you," he offers quietly. "I see someone whose life was stolen before he was even allowed to live. I see someone who's trying so hard to change and make up for what he's done in the past. I see you, Theo, for what you are; I hope that you will, too."

"Definitely don't deserve you," Theo mutters, but this time there's an edge of a joke there that Liam hears, and he laughs.

"You will after you've had a shower." He pulls Theo out of the room and towards his bathroom, and for some reason Theo can't stop smiling, even when Liam shoves him into the shower fully clothed and turns the cold water on full blast. "Why are you laughing, you weirdo?" he asks over the blast of the water.

"Because," Theo replies, grinning and tilting his head back into the spray before he turns it up to warm. "Are you staying to watch me strip?" He pulls his shirt, now sopping wet, over his head and throws it into the sink, and starts to shuck off his sweatpants.

"I'll be in the kitchen," Liam calls over his shoulder as he leaves, shutting the door behind him with a small click. He evidently forgets for a few seconds that Theo can hear his heartbeat and smell his chemosignals, because he pauses outside the door and the smell of relief and euphoria coming off him is so obvious that Theo doesn't even have to concentrate to identify it.

"I can smell you, dumbass," Theo yells, washing his hair, and laughs when he hears his footsteps scurrying away downstairs.

It's going to be okay.

* * *

Hope you enjoyed? Maybe?  
If you did, or didn't, please let me know why!  
my main worry with this is if it seems too rushed  
Love you all


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